Expects to ship more 'product' to Manitoba over next few days AN Alberta medicinal marijuana crusader is demanding RCMP return the dope and cash they seized from him Wednesday after his car was spot-checked in Headingley. Grant Krieger, of Calgary, said yesterday Mounties confiscated $7,500 in cash and "product'' -- one pound of marijuana divided up for delivery to his 28 clients in Selkirk and Winnipeg. Krieger, 49, said the officers left him only two grams of pot for his own personal use, as he is by law allowed to smoke it to control his multiple sclerosis. [continues 472 words]
Grant Krieger Is Appealing His Controversial Pot Conviction From Last Month. "I don't feel justice was done in that courtroom that day," said the 49-year-old Calgarian, who has attained a degree of notoriety for fighting the country's drug laws and advocating marijuana for medicinal use. "I had two jurors who did not want to convict me for what I did." On charges that stem from a 1999 arrest, Krieger was convicted Dec. 3 of possessing marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. He was sentenced to one day in jail, which he had already served while in custody nearly five years ago. [continues 265 words]
Supreme Court Of Canada Decision On Pot Wins Cops' High Approval While Activist Stews City police are cheering and a local marijuana activist is jeering a Supreme Court of Canada ruling yesterday upholding the illegality of possessing small amounts of pot. By a 6-3 vote, the court turned down three separate cases challenging the criminal prohibition on cannabis possession, ruling such a ban is constitutional. It's now up to the federal government to decide whether or not to follow through on its pledge to decriminalize simple possession. [continues 233 words]
I've had hepatitis C for 30 years now. (" 'Miracle' drug changes lives," Licia Corbella, Dec. 7.) When I was first told I was positive, they told me there was no cure and I had about five years left to live. Back then it was called yellow jaundice. I have been smoking cannabis all of this time. It is much better to be able to get it off Grant Krieger than to buy it off the street. Randy Hoffman (The only thing Krieger is peddling is compassion.) [end]
A Calgary jury has sent a strong message that Canadians abhor Draconian laws on marijuana, a message that should encourage the incoming federal government of Paul Martin to move forward on decriminalization. The jury crafted its message cleverly, by accepting a judge's order to convict in a medicinal-marijuana case but taking nearly 10 hours to do so. The message was that Canadians are law-abiding, but the laws must make sense to be obeyed. It wasn't quite jury-nullification, but it did contain an echo of the four jury acquittals of abortion doctor Henry Morgentaler in the 1970s and 80s, acquittals that helped bring down an unjust law. Grant Krieger, who has multiple sclerosis, and who admitted to keeping 29 cannabis plants to produce marijuana for other seriously ill people, was charged in 1999 with drug trafficking. Mr. Justice Paul Chrumka of the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench instructed the jury to convict Mr. Krieger, since the accused offered no defence other than necessity, which did not apply since none of his customers faced immediate, life-threatening peril. [continues 391 words]
Curative Properties of Marijuana Aired During Testimony at Krieger Trial It seems that once a month at least, I meet or speak to someone whose life has been remarkably improved -- if not transformed -- by the medicinal properties of marijuana. Many of these people contact me. Some of them call to tell me that it was one of my columns that spurred them on to try marijuana. I've even had a retired dentist in Hawaii who suffers from multiple sclerosis write to tell me he read one of my columns, tried marijuana and has gone from being confined to a wheelchair and living with incredible pain, to playing 18 holes of golf almost daily! He joked that marijuana improved his handicap in more ways than one! [continues 811 words]
Cannabis crusader Grant Krieger is vowing to continue his compassion club despite being convicted of trafficking after an unparalleled, compelling courtroom scene. "I have no choice but to," Krieger said in an interview Thursday, one day after his conviction. "The people I help would have to go into the street for this (marijuana). Nobody should have to go into the street for this, especially when you're ill." Krieger, who lives on a disability pension, has permission from the federal government to use the illicit weed to treat his own multiple sclerosis. Krieger said he plans to appeal the conviction. [continues 652 words]
Marie Krieger is angry, disenchanted and hurting. "This has cost us so much more than the money," says the woman who for 28 years has been married to renowned pot crusader Grant Krieger. "This has cost us our marriage. We're getting a divorce." And then tearfully she adds: "I still love this man enormously. This is the man I've spent most of my life with. We'll always be friends as far as I'm concerned." Does her husband agree? [continues 696 words]
Krieger Verdict Delivered After Protests A Calgary jury took nine and a half hours Wednesday before following a judge's directive to convict renowned pot crusader Grant Krieger of possessing marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. Court of Queen's bench Justice Paul Chrumka instructed the jury of seven women and five men to find Krieger guilty of the offence. However, two jurors refused for several hours, telling the judge they couldn't go against their conscience. Both jurors asked to be dismissed after they were brought in to court individually and given a copy of their oath to read. [continues 740 words]
Judge Sentences Multiple-Sclerosis Sufferer to One Day in Jail CALGARY -- An Alberta jury convicted a medicinal-marijuana crusader of drug trafficking last night almost 10 hours after the judge told jurors they had no choice but to find to find him guilty. The verdict was reached after two jurors asked to be excused, saying they could not in good conscience convict Grant Krieger, a 49-year-old multiple-sclerosis sufferer who admitted in court that he ran a marijuana-grow operation to provide pot for himself and the ill. [continues 559 words]
CALGARY -- A medicinal-marijuana activist with no defence for drug trafficking may have grounds to appeal his conviction, legal experts said yesterday, because an Alberta judge told the jury he was guilty and ordered jurors to convict him. "The charge to the jury is so out there," said Sanjeev Anand, a professor of criminal law at the University of Alberta who is working on a book about juries. "This judge clearly went beyond established practice." He said the charge to the jury was inappropriate in a legal system in which judges are supposed to guide jurors about the law, but still allows them to ignore it. [continues 475 words]
Jurors told to convict Krieger Compassion for the ill got Grant Krieger in legal hot water. Last night a Calgary judge handed him a dose of his own medicine, sparing the medicinal marijuana crusader jail despite a court-ordered jury conviction for trafficking pot. A bizarre day which included two jurors asking to leave the case because they couldn't bring themselves to convict Krieger ended with the city resident being found guilty. But Justice Paul Chrumka, who hours earlier had directed jurors to convict Krieger, said sending the frail, multiple sclerosis sufferer to jail would be unjust. [continues 225 words]
Amazing, strange and rare things took place in room 504 at the Court of Queen's Bench yesterday. The case has to do with Grant Krieger, Calgary's foremost cannabis crusader, who has bankrupted his family in his quest to provide medicinal marijuana to sick and dying Canadians. Krieger, who has suffered from Multiple Sclerosis since 1973 and uses only pot and a healthy diet to keep himself walking, readily admits that he had (and has) a grow operation and, as such, he broke the law back in 1999. [continues 660 words]
Judge Refuses Request, Saying They Have No Choice Except To Find The Accused Guilty CALGARY -- Two jurors told a Calgary court late yesterday that they could not in good conscience convict a medicinal-marijuana crusader of drug trafficking despite the judge's order to find him guilty. Both jurors, one man and one woman, asked to be excused from the jury almost seven hours into deliberating the fate of Grant Krieger, a 49-year-old multiple-sclerosis sufferer who admitted in court that he ran a marijuana-grow operation to provide pot for himself and the ill. [continues 507 words]
Calgary -- A Calgary man charged with drug trafficking admits to growing and supplying marijuana to the ill because there was no legal source for the medicinal substance, his lawyer said yesterday during the first day of his trial. Grant Krieger, 49, was charged with possessing marijuana for the purpose of trafficking in connection with a raid on his house in 1999 during which 29 cannabis plants were seized. His lawyer, Adriano Iovinelli, told court that his client was growing the plants to distribute to people who suffer from Lou Gehrig's Disease, terminal cancer and HIV/AIDS infection. [end]
The federal government's inability to make dope available to those who can legally use it is at the heart of an admitted pot grower's case, a jury was told yesterday. Defence lawyer Adriano Iovinelli said his client, Grant Krieger, doesn't deny harvesting marijuana to distribute to others, but only out of necessity. Iovinelli said Krieger started a Calgary chapter of the Compassion Club in 1999 because the drug wasn't being made available for medical use. "Mr. Krieger cultivated and distributed that marijuana to individuals who were in need," Iovinelli said during submissions at his client's jury trial. Krieger faces an Aug. 25, 1999, charge of possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. The trial, set for five days, continues this morning. [end]
Here it is, the marijuana debate. In Canada it is a highly controversial subject. The United Kingdom beat Canada to the punch on October 29th, by downgrading marijuana to a class C drug, making arrests only possible in aggravating situations, like smoking it near a school or playground. Canada has similar legislation on the table to decriminalize marijuana possession. This is not to be confused with legalization; decriminalization means that no criminal record will be kept for possession, but fines will still be handed out. These fines will be $150 for an adult and $100 for a youth, if the pot in possession does not exceed 15 grams and there are no aggravating factors. [continues 639 words]
Pot activist Marc Emery was arrested at the Regina Police Headquarters Saturday afternoon moments after he lit up a marijuana pipe. As five police officers watched from the steps of Regina's police station, an officer circulating in the crowd moved to handcuff marijuana activist Marc Emery moments after he lit a marijuana pipe Saturday afternoon. The cannabis crusader was in Regina on his Summer of Legalization Tour 2003 to protest Canada's pot laws. Emery maintains marijuana is legal in Canada after the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered Parliament to amend the existing legislation in July 2000. [continues 617 words]
What, one has to wonder, has Anne McLellan and the high-priced help at Health Canada been smoking. Don't get me wrong, I'm fully in favour of the fed's announcement yesterday that it will - for the interim anyway - get into the business of selling marijuana to sick Canadians. What makes this look like the kind of plan put together by a stoned pothead needing to make a snap decision -- or, well, this Liberal government -- is that THE main group of individuals needed to make this program a success -- doctors -- have already opted out. [continues 595 words]
Cochrane Times--Marijuana may be on the road to decriminalization, but it is still illegal. This message comes from Cochrane RCMP as talk of the new legislation fuels debate. "The commissioner of the RCMP, (Giuliano) Zaccardelli, has come out in support of decriminalization of marijuana," said Cochrane RCMP Const. Patty Neely. "But we just want to make sure the people in Cochrane are aware that decriminalization does not mean legalization. It is still an offence to be in possession of marijuana, even in small amounts." [continues 1155 words]
